The social power of algorithms

Beer, David

doi:10.1080/1369118x.2016.1216147

Cited by 519 publications

(306 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…In an era of data‐driven planning that portends objectivity and instrumental rationality, algorithms commonly acquire a ‘sensibility of truth’ (Slavin, ). David Beer (: 1) argues that the social power of algorithms derives from their technical behavior and from the way algorithms come to be invested with particular ‘visions of calculative objectivity’. They hold, as Beer ( ibid .…”

Section: The Power Of Algorithms In Data‐driven Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographies of Algorithmic Violence: Redlining the Smart City

Safransky¹

2019

Int J Urban Regional Res

128

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City governments are embracing data‐driven and algorithmic planning to tackle urban problems. Data‐driven analytics have an unprecedented capacity to call urban futures into being. At the same time, they can depoliticize planning decisions. I argue that this shift calls urban studies scholars to investigate geographies of algorithmic violence—a repetitive and standardized form of violence that contributes to the racialization of space and spatialization of poverty. This article examines this broader phenomenon through the case of a proprietary market value assessment that is being used to guide development in cities across the United States. The assessment employs an algorithm that helps city officials make critical decisions about which neighborhoods to target for investment, disinvestment and public service upgrades or disconnections. I argue that the racial, infrastructural, and epistemological violence associated with this evaluation can potentially lead to a new kind of municipal redlining. The article brings insights from critical race theory into conversation with critical scholarship on algorithms by analyzing how algorithmic violence works through data‐driven planning technologies to depoliticize and leverage power while further entrenching racism and inequality.

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Section: The Power Of Algorithms In Data‐driven Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographies of Algorithmic Violence: Redlining the Smart City

Safransky¹

2019

Int J Urban Regional Res

128

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“…Current research on algorithms aims for opening the black box (Pasquale 2015) of algorithmic technics and demands more transparency and accountability (Diakopoulos 2016) of the social power of algorithms (Beer 2017). The grounding in the ideas of Marcuse helps further develop the debate by focusing on two additional problems: the hidden relations of algorithmic production, and reified consciousness of the commodity exchange of information commodities.…”

Section: From One-dimensionality To Critical Rationalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Critique of the Political Economy of Algorithms: A Brief History of Google’s Technological Rationality

Bilić¹

2018

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Abstract:In this article, I argue that the debate about the irrational consequences of rationality, discussed within the tradition of the Frankfurt School, and applied to technology and machinery in the concept of technological rationality (Marcuse 1941;1960;2007/1964/1965, can help us better understand and criticise contemporary algorithmic capitalism. In particular, the dialectical relation between technics and technology proposed by Marcuse (1941) argue that the company developed on the foundation of three interconnected technological rationalities: organisational rationality of flexible management values and labour utilisation; informational rationality of generating value from advertising and audience labour; and rationality of surplus value accumulation based on reification of labour and consciousness. The company produces two main types of commodities: audience commodity and algorithmic commodity, each solidifying the company's control and dominance over Internet usage habits.Keywords: Technological Rationality, Algorithms, Automation, Commodity Exchange, Labour, Reification, Value, Praxis Acknowledgement: I would like to thank Christian Fuchs and WIAS International Fellows for informed and critical discussions about contemporary capitalism that helped solidify and sharpen the ideas developed in this article.

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“…While algorithms have been primarily understood in a technical sense, critical scholars have proposed approaching algorithms politically, socially, and culturally (Beer, 2017;Gillespie, 2016a;Kitchin, 2017;Neyland, 2015;Ziewitz, 2016). From a social scientific point of view, algorithms exist not only in codes but also in the social consciousness as part of a knowledge apparatus (Beer, 2017;Gillespie, 2014).…”

Section: Algorithmic Socialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From a social scientific point of view, algorithms exist not only in codes but also in the social consciousness as part of a knowledge apparatus (Beer, 2017;Gillespie, 2014). Thus, algorithms should be examined within their discursive practices and framings as sensitizing devices rather than mere computational artifacts (Beer, 2017;Ziewitz, 2016).…”

Section: Algorithmic Socialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Calculating dating goals: data gaming and algorithmic sociality on Blued, a Chinese gay dating app

Wang

2018

Information, Communication & Society

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Although studies on gay dating apps have shown the ways through which technical features intervene in sexual sociality, seldom do they shed light on the central feature that undergirds their usealgorithms. This article examines Blued, China's largest gay dating app, aiming to unfold the data structure and algorithms that navigate the use of its two prime functionalities: browsing and live streaming. Rather than seeing users as passive audiences that are subject to being measured and calculated based on algorithmically filtered information, this article argues that users can act on the data they provide to dating apps to influence and shape the algorithmic dating outcomes. For Blued browsing, gay men are datafied with numbers and tags for users to sort and filter. For Blued live, gay men are evaluated by the yanzhi algorithm, which literally means 'value of a person's face', for users to pinpoint dating goals. By gaming the data and shaping their algorithmic outcomes, an algorithmic sociality is animated through the filter browsing and the yanzhi metric. In this way, algorithms have become ritual tools for gay sociality on Blued. This article ends by opening up critiques on the justification of social biases lurking inside this algorithmic sociality. ARTICLE HISTORY

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The social power of algorithms

Cited by 519 publications

References 27 publications

Geographies of Algorithmic Violence: Redlining the Smart City

Geographies of Algorithmic Violence: Redlining the Smart City

A Critique of the Political Economy of Algorithms: A Brief History of Google’s Technological Rationality

Calculating dating goals: data gaming and algorithmic sociality on Blued, a Chinese gay dating app

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